The Benefits of Same-Sex Education for Boys

What’s it take to get through to today’s little men? Haverford School alum Michael Bradley heads back to campus to find out.

By Michael Bradley

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When senior Zach Rego donned a nightgown and gray wig last fall to play Aunt Martha in his school’s production of Arsenic and Old Lace, his Haverford School classmates showed up en masse to see the show. And why wouldn’t they? Here was golden opportunity to heckle a versatile athlete in drag.

Granted, Rego took some heat for dressing like a murderous spinster. That’s just what guys do to guys. And yet, when the stage lights came on and Rego hit his first mark, there were no catcalls. “I couldn’t have felt more comfortable,” he says.

Rego graduated from Haverford in June and will attend Georgetown University in the fall. He was a standout in football, lacrosse and wrestling. He sang in the Notables, Haverford’s a cappella singing group, and appeared in several plays. Some might even call him a budding Renaissance man—the perfect product of an all-male environment.

And he’s fine with that. “I didn’t feel I had to hold myself back,” Rego says. “It was just the guys.”

When Rego arrived at Haverford from St. Aloysius Academy, an all-boys K-8 school, most knew him only as an athlete. They had no idea he’d been singing since second grade. He concedes that, had there been girls on campus, he probably wouldn’t have tried out for the Notables. “Trying to impress girls is distracting,” he says. “I don’t care what guys think, so I never cared about trying something new.”

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